Why Can't I Hear In Restaurants?

Time to Read: 8 minutes

Whether you have hearing loss or normal hearing, it's very common in today's society to struggle to hear in a restaurant or cafe. In this video, Emma shares her thoughts on exactly why this is.

You can watch the video, or read the transcript below:

Hi there, welcome back to Value Hearings YouTube channel.

I'm Emma. I'm a clinical audiologist.

Today I'm going to talk about hearing in restaurants and why it is so difficult for all of us, not just the hearing impaired - those wearing hearing aids - but also people with completely normal hearing.

Trendy décor, bars and restaurants merge

So there was a time, apparently pre-1970s, in countries like America and Australia, restaurants had soft furnishings.

All right, I migrated to Australia 12 years ago from Ireland, where most restaurants have soft furnishings and low ceilings and booths, so acoustics in restaurants wasn't really an issue back there.

Here in Australia it's hard surfaces and glass everywhere, no tablecloths, no booths, generally high ceilings, and I suppose places that are just easier to clean, and they look cooler.

That's essentially what's happened since the ’70s, the aesthetic was really what they were aiming for. They wanted something that looked really clean and modern, and smooth, and they absolutely did not consider what that would do to our ability to hear or understand speech in these restaurants.

Then they started adding, maybe, bands into restaurants where they had live music. That apparently came about when they started merging bars with restaurants - bars being noisy and raucous, restaurants supposed to be intimate and classier, now have ended up merging.

And so you've got a little bit more raucous music, and drunker people I guess, being rowdy throughout your restaurants. We've ended up with this trend of open kitchens as well, which looks very cool and it's really amazing to watch chefs make your food, but again incredibly noisy to be trying to have a conversation right next to all that noise.

So, that was the trend side of things. That was them trying to make their restaurants look cooler. Part of it was them trying to make it easier to clean, and cheaper to run in the sense that they wouldn't have to launder tablecloths and whatnot.

Here's cheers... for restaurateurs

However there is a little bit of a dark side to it in that restaurants actually did a little bit of research and realised that when the restaurant was noisy, and in fact even noisier, the more people drank in terms of alcohol.

And also, the more they were moving on. They were less likely to sit around and wax lyrical and talk. In fact, they'd eat faster, drink faster and get out and tables were turning over faster, so it turned out to be a lot more profitable.

Obviously more alcohol for restaurants being consumed is more profitable.

It doesn't mean that we enjoy it though, and there have been a lot of complaints over the years.

In the US, sadly not in Australia (maybe it will happen), you have some apps that actually help you find restaurants and cafes that have put some thought into their acoustics, or have just naturally got a design that is more conducive to good understanding of speech-in-noise.

Noise makes dining out exhausting

It is really unfortunate and honestly, it's not something that normal hearing people enjoy either. We all go home exhausted from having to converse in these noisy restaurants, because what the brain is doing is - because it's not hearing or understanding really half of what's been said (in most cases maybe none) - we're relying on lip-reading cues and contextual cues.

In restaurants that's not so easy because we're talking while we're eating, so visual cues are not always possible and then contextual cues.

That's fine if you know the topic of conversation, but that will often change. In a normal conversation in a restaurant, if it's flowing as it normally would be, you end up often guessing or not having a conversation with each other, or just feeling absolutely exhausted from trying to keep up.

So please, with your favourite restaurants if they serve good food, maybe talk to the owners about putting some soft furnishings in, or considering putting some acoustic materials like acoustic panelling.

It is something that's happening more and more. It's expensive, but there are ways that they can make it nicer for us to have conversations in restaurants without affecting the aesthetic.

Or maybe they just need to go back to the way restaurants actually were back in the 50s and 60s, where we had soft furnishings, lower ceilings and much more cosy intimate surroundings.

That's my 10 cents on restaurants. And cafés? Not much better, and I'm sorry that you all have to experience this when you've already got hearing loss, and hearing aids.

Finding the best seat in the house

The hearing aid industry and your audiologist - we are all trying our best to help you to hear in these environments as much as possible - be it with hearing aids and or good communication tips that we give you.

Definitely positioning in restaurants will really have a big impact for you, so talk to your audiologist about where to sit in a restaurant or café, and maybe what program to use in your hearing aid to optimize the situation.

Maybe you need to consider an assistive listening device or an app that helps you hear better in restaurants with your hearing aids.